York Lawn Tennis Club are faced with a bill in the region of £30,000 after their five carpet courts at Clifton Park have been flooded.

The flood water of the River Ouse have covered the courts to a depth of four feet on court one to six inches on court four. This has resulted in the carpets being lifted from the solid base with debris adding to the problems.

"We are in dire straits," said chairman John Linfoot. "The courts were laid six years ago and the club, which has been on this site since 1965, has never seen water on the carpet courts before. It's ironical that the flood bank behind the courts hasn't been breached.,

"I have been in touch with the makers and am told that replacement carpets for all five courts would cost about £30,000.

"It's a major blow but we now have to get on with getting things back to normal as soon as the flood waters have subsided.

"The one piece of good news is that we were about to spend £3,000 on having the carpet cleaned with a special machine and fortunately work didn't go ahead before the floods. If it had, the £3,000 would have been wasted."

sport@ycp.co.uk